News Burkina Faso

Just as birds fly the length of Africa on their migration, so the love of birds forms a chain linking different schools in different countries across the continent. On the 12th of May, each school celebrated World Migratory Bird Day in their own unique way. Here are just a few.

It’s a first for Burkina Faso... a love story between environmental organization NATURAMA (BirdLife - Burkina Faso) and the private cement factory CIMBURKINA. Their common aim is to strengthen nature conservation and improve community livelihoods at the cement plant's operating sites.

The benefits of shea butter are plenty, but the future of this valuable oil may not be as smooth. The shea tree’s surrounding habitat is steadily being stripped of diversely flowering trees and shrubs, impacting pollinators and diminishing yields. This loss of habitat also lowers numbers of insect-hungry migratory birds. A new BirdLife project, funded by the Darwin Initiative, aims to help crack this tough nut. Education, replanting, research, and collaboration with Industry form part of a pilot project aiming to soften the rough areas of Burkina Faso’s shea butter production.

On understanding the vital roles vultures play in ecosystems, West African Ambassadors quickly reversed any personal attitudes of distaste towards vultures and expressed full support to BirdLife's campaign.

As part of BirdLife’s Improving Livelihoods Project in Oursi village, Burkina Faso, together with Living on the Edge, a sustainable land use project in the Sahel region, a local community has launched a grinding mill. The aim is to generate income and to alleviate hardships faced by both women and children in processing food for consumption at the household level.

Birds and people depend on natural resources for their survival. The intricate link between people and their environment is especially apparent in the Sahel, with its millions of people (and hundreds of millions of goats), its unpredictable rainfall, and the increasing pressure on wetlands, trees and grasslands which are also used by billions of migratory and Afrotropical birds.

On flat dusty clearings bordered by spindly trees in rural West Africa, women can be seen rolling out balls of what look (and smell) like large mammal droppings. Making this condiment, soumbala, is one of the only ways local women can make a living. Whatever nature provides has value to people...